ORR/Fairhaven has no answers for Blue Hills

The youthful Old Rochester-Fairhaven hockey team dug itself into a canyon-sized, four-goal hole in the first period — a hole it couldn't dig out of in an 8-1 loss to Blue Hills.

DEREK VITAL

MARION — The youthful Old Rochester-Fairhaven hockey team dug itself into a canyon-sized, four-goal hole in the first period — a hole it couldn't dig out of in an 8-1 loss to Blue Hills Wednesday at Tabor academy.

The Bulldogs (1-2-1) trailed 3-0 before getting their first shot on goal against the bigger, stronger Warriors.

"This was probably the first game all year I thought, physically, we got beaten up," said ORR-Fairhaven head coach Eric Labonte. "We just didn't play well positionally in our own end in the first period, and quite frankly, didn't get the goaltending we needed either. That's a bad combination."

Blue Hills senior forward Josh Edwards netted a pair of goals four minutes apart midway through the first period, giving the Warriors a 2-0 lead. Teammate Kyle Moore wristed a shot past Bulldogs' freshman goalie Chris Nadeau from the faceoff circle on the left side of the ice, increasing the Blue Hills advantage to 3-0 with 5:04 left in the first period.

The Bulldogs finally got their first shot on goal with four minutes remaining in the opening period when junior forward Jacob Graham came up with a steal in the defensive end, but his bid was calmly stopped by Warrior netminder Austin Carrel.

With two minutes left in the first period, Edwards completed a hat trick when he uncorked a slapshot from center ice which whistled by Nadeau. Labonte opted to use freshman Derek Gibson in goal the rest of the game.

The second period was more evenly matched with both teams coming up with tallies. Sophomore forward Jeremy Lawton fed linemate Cam Severino, who snuck a shot into the Warriors' net, making the score 4-1 with 6:18 left in the second period. Blue Hills answered when junior Kyle Moore tapped in the rebound of an Edwards' bid, increasing the Warriors' advantage to 5-1.

"I thought the team competed in the second and third periods, but we are going to struggle to score goals all year," said Labonte. "If we can't keep the puck out of our net, we are going to be in trouble."

Blue Hills put the game away with three goals in the third period.

LABONTE ON HIS TEAMS' LACK OF OFFENSIVE FIREPOWER: "Ultimately, to put the puck in the net you need finishers. Sometimes we have good opportunities, we just can't put it in the net."

NOTES: The Bulldogs have scored more than two goals in a game once this season, a 3-2 victory over Dartmouth on Dec. 12. ... ORR-Fairhaven has seven freshmen and a trio of eighth-graders on its varsity roster. ... The Warriors outshot the Bulldogs 33-10 for the game.

UP NEXT: ORR-Fairhaven takes on Medfield Friday night at 6 p.m. in the Big Ham Cup. The tournament is being held at Gallo Rink in Bourne.